Jade Plasencia, Author at London Virtual Personal Assistant Services, Marketing, Accountancy, HR & Recruitment

Accountancy vs Bookkeeping

by Jade Plasencia | Aug 3, 2022

For somebody who doesn’t work in finance, it can be difficult to distinguish the difference between accounting and bookkeeping, as there are some administrative areas that can overlap depending on the structure of a business and how many employees it has working in its finance department.

However, while bookkeepers and accountants share common goals, they do support your business in different stages of the financial cycle.

Bookkeeping is more administrative, recording financial transactions. Accounting is more subjective, giving you insights into your business’s financial health based on the information provided by bookkeepers.

If you’ve ever wanted a clear definition between accountancy and bookkeeping, keep reading.

What is a Bookkeeper?

Bookkeeping is a legal requirement for all businesses of any size to carry out, and it refers to the recording of the financial transactions of a business, whether a sole trader, a partnership, or a limited company.

A bookkeeper will record all transactions either manually or within an ERP system like XERO and keep copies of all invoices, receipts and evidence of these incomings and outgoings.

The role of a bookkeeper will include:

Recording financial transactions
Posting debits and credits
Producing invoices
Preparation of financial statements (balance sheet, cash flow statement, and income statement)
Maintaining and balancing subsidiaries, general ledgers, and historical accounts
Completing payroll

What is an Accountant?

An accountant has expert knowledge surrounding taxes and accountancy. A business needs to consider more than just the in’s and out’s calculated by a bookkeeper, the right accountant will guide and act as financial business partner, ensuring all allowable expenses are claimed and all decisions are tax efficient to not only the business but the owners, directors, and partners.

The role of an Accountant will include:

Preparing adjusting entries (recording expenses that have occurred but aren’t yet recorded in the bookkeeping process)
Reviewing company financial statements
Analyzing costs of operations
Completing income tax returns
Aiding the business owner in understanding the impact of financial decisions

Designated Accountancy Services

All business owners want to have complete control of their business finances and have an up-to-date view of their financial performance. Our team of Designated accountants are experts who work with you on a flexible basis, whether you need support one day a month, one day each week or more.

Designated is a Xero Bronze Partner and our finance team are Xero certified advisors, trained by Xero to deliver you the best financial support.

Do you wish you had answers to questions like these?

How much tax will I need to pay next year?
How much profit did we make last month?
What do you mean by Tax Digital?
Am I managing payroll in the most effective way?

If so, then our Accountancy services may be your solution, please get in touch:

Vicky Garbett, Head Of Accountancy vicky@designatedgroup.com 020 7952 1460

What skills should you look for when hiring a Marketing Manager?

by Jade Plasencia | Jun 28, 2022

If Marketing were easy. Everyone would be doing it. Sometimes it feels like they are. All experienced marketers will be able to share examples of when they’ve been approached with some ‘helpful social media or marketing ideas’ from IT/Sales/HR/Finance, pretty much everyone who isn’t working day to day in the field.

In an industry as competitive as marketing it can be difficult trawling through hundreds of CV’s to search for ‘the one’. At Designated we have worked with freelancers and full-time marketers for many years and can quickly identify the character and skills that sets apart the stand-out candidates.

With so much noise out there these days, it’s no secret that you’ll want to get the most out of your marketing efforts and your marketing manager must decide how best to use limited resources to create an effective strategy.

We believe your marketing manager should possess all of the following skills on some level:

Social Media Savvy
Love it or loathe it, social is here to stay. A good marketer will know their way around the platforms as well as the most suitable ones for your audience. There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach with social media and it takes a lot of time (and money) to get things going. Finding the right mix of content, frequency, and engagement for each network can be a challenge.

We mention money as social media is still considered (by some) a free marketing tool. It is not. Organic social can often feel like going into a dark room, locking all the doors and windows and then shouting about your company. Social media is a pay to play game, but it’s not all bad. Paid targeted campaigns can give you data-driven insights to help you pinpoint who your audience is and how best to market to them. An experienced marketing manager will have paid social media experience and can help guide this process.

Creativity
Marketing has always benefited from creative types using their gifts of coming up with campaigns and slogans which make the masses laugh, cry, think, and most importantly, purchase.

One of the biggest challenges today in creative marketing is standing out in a saturated market. Your marketing manager won’t always have new products or updates and so a bit of creative thinking is required to re-market and re-introduce existing content or ideas in new and interesting ways.

An eye for design is always beneficial and if they have the technical design skills, even better! They can turn content around quickly and independently. This is especially useful in social media, to piggyback on trending topics or news stories.

A Clear Communicator
A marketing manager needs to be able to communicate effectively and start with asking what is going to be the end goal of a project. It often involves gathering lots of information from several departments.

Avoiding miscommunication online and offline is key, and there will be many times your marketing manager will be required to explain a strategy or plan that might initially feel quite alien to other key stakeholders. A great marketer will be able to get the rest of the team/company excited about the campaign helping to excel employee advocacy.

Resourceful
We cannot stress the importance of this skill. If you’re a business owner or senior leader, you are going to need your marketing manager to be resourceful. Their work may often involve making something out of nothing depending on the size of your organisation. They need to be able to make the most out of the tools available to them and where additional resource is required, make their case for additional marketing tools or team members.

Multi-tasker
Any marketer can attest to multi-tasking being a necessity. Having thirty tabs open at any given time, flicking between programs and projects is often second nature to experienced marketing managers, who are trying to cram a lot in during their working day. With so many platforms and technical processes, a seemingly simple task can actually take a lot of time. As well as multi-tasking we would also add highly organised with excellent time-management to this point.

Data-Driven
If you’re looking to hire marketing manager, it is important to consider a candidate’s analytical skills. From social platforms to email and website insights to CRM systems. Marketing is as much about the numbers as it is about something looking good.

Data-driven marketing bases brand communications on information that has been gathered through research or previous campaigns. Testing and optimising will form the basis of many marketing strategies, great marketers will need to be able to read the data and adjust accordingly. Marketers need at the very least, to have a knowledge of what their benchmark is and know what impact their campaign is having. Marketers who are naturally curious do well in this area of the role.

Marketing managers are a great asset to a company. They ensure that the business they work for gets noticed by consumers and consumers can communicate directly with them if they have any questions or concerns. It is a job that requires persistence, intelligence, discipline and patience among all of the skills above. No doubt there are many more we don’t have room for in this article, but if you take one thing away from this blog post, it is that some of the top marketing managers can bring a tremendous amount of value to your organisation.

At Designated, we have sourced some of the best marketing talent to save you the time. So, if you’re looking to hire a marketing manager for 5 hours a week or 35 hours a week, we can provide the best person for the job based on your specific requirements.

We don’t pretend to know your business; you know your business, but we will ask questions and push for answers through our business review/discovery sessions. This will ensure we have a full understanding of your goals, what your market looks like and how we can position your message clearly, to give your brand value in the marketplace and ensure you are a consideration for your target audience.

If you’re looking for support in the areas of Marketing, Accountancy, Bookkeeping or PA we’d love to talk.

Top social media trends for your 2022 marketing strategy

by Jade Plasencia | Mar 21, 2022

Your customers are already searching, liking and sharing their favourite products, brands and services on social media—and they’re spending more time on these sites than ever before. But this activity doesn’t stop at consumer products, they are using social media in all aspects of their lives.

Investing in social media marketing can help you grow your business thanks to its cost-effective advertising, smooth eCommerce capabilities, and the ability to give your brand a way to engage with your customers in a human way.

If it’s not easy for them to find you online, they can easily become frustrated and find another provider that better serves their needs.

Social media has become an essential part of the marketing mix, with more than three billion people worldwide spending over two hours a day socializing on social networks and messaging apps. Your business can tap into this pool of potential customers to increase user engagement and gain new leads—but you need to build a social media strategy that accurately reflects your business’s goals.

That’s why looking to the experts for their social media top tips and trends can be a great place to start as you begin to build your marketing and social media strategy.

Hubspot recently shared their top to trends to look out for in 2022 and beyond

TikTok will dominate the social media space.
Reaching new audiences will become the number one social media goal for businesses.
Companies will make more dedicated social media hires.
Augmented Reality will become consumers’ preferred way to try-on products and interact with brands.
Businesses in the B2B space will increase their investments in Instagram and Twitter.
Influencer marketing will mature in 2022.
Social advertising will become more sophisticated.
Businesses will invest in more long-form and short-form content, as well as live audio chat rooms.
Social selling demands will grow.
Consumers will crave snackable content.

There are many social media trends reports circulating but they all seem to share the same ideas, this is interesting when many brands have written off platforms like TikTok, seeing them as a fast-growing pandemic fad or influencer marketing as low return on investment.

As marketers, it is interesting to be part of an industry that is constantly evolving, and with now people more than ever using social media to inform their purchasing decisions, it has never been more important to ensure you’re making the most of the tools and platforms available to you. When social media isn’t prioritized, organizations miss out on the

opportunity to optimize platforms and turn them into revenue generators.

If you’re looking to reach new audiences, trial new platforms, increase your paid social investments or create snackable content to share your story, then our marketing team which includes experts within the social media sphere can help guide you through the process.

Managing small business cash flow and income in 2022

by Jade Plasencia | Mar 21, 2022

Content from this article was originally posted by XERO.

While there are many advantages of being your own boss and running your own small business it isn’t always easy and it can come with hurdles you didn’t even know existed. Then throw in 12 months of restrictions, lockdowns and uncertainty.

The scale of the impact felt by the self-employed is abundantly clear in latest research by simply business. They found Covid-19 will cost SMEs an estimated £126.6 billion – double what owners predicted it would cost them. With six million SMEs in the UK – accounting for over 99% of all businesses, 33% of employment and 21% of all turnover – this £126.6 billion hole in the books of small businesses is a huge blow to the economy.

It’s been a lean time for small businesses, and especially the families supporting them.

Xero’s small business trends report shows that 60% of small business owners are worried about their household finances running low. So while 2022 will hopefully be a year of rebounding sales and revenue, owners really need that to carry through to the business’ bottom line.

What the experts say

“Businesses must analyse margins and focus on the products and services that generate actual profits as they try to restore cash to the business,” says Ya Wen How, an accountant at AccountServe, who participated in the report.

While there will be a temptation to withdraw any spare cash from the business as ‘owner’s drawings’, experts say it’s important to be mindful of upcoming and potentially unknown expenses.

“Owners often overlook upcoming business expenses when taking drawings, which creates cash flow issues later,” says David Stephens, an accountant at Stephens Financial Services. These cash flow issues create further disruption to the household budget because money has to be put back to the business.

“Rather than clearing out the business bank account, owners are better off paying themselves a modest amount at regular intervals,” Stephens advises.

Takeaways for small businesses

There are a few things small businesses can do to help support their recovery according to Xero’s small business trends report:

Analyse your business margins and focus on products that generate the most profit
Create a ‘rainy day fund’ within the business so you’re not constantly loaning it money from your personal savings
Schedule regular, sustainable drawings to ease home budgeting
Keep your regular drawings modest, as you can always give yourself a bonus payment at the end of a good year

Check out other trends for 2022

Read Xero’s small business trends report to learn more about how to manage your cash and income to set your business up for success in 2022.

Post-pandemic Accountancy support and HMRC changes for 2022

by Jade Plasencia | Feb 21, 2022

Over the past few years, it has been difficult to keep up with the ever-changing landscape that is, business finance. There have been several schemes announced by the UK Government to support both businesses and their employees but staying on top of all the changes and keeping everybody informed hasn’t always been easy. There have been several changes that come into effect this year, from the end of the Coronavirus working from home tax concessions to the commencement of tax digital and an increase in HMRC’s late payments interest rates. Not to mention 2021 IR35 announcements. We have discussed some of these changes before but we thought as we are hitting a busy time of the year for accounting, it might be useful to share information and resources about these upcoming changes.

Coronavirus working from home tax concession to stop in April 2022
If you or your teams have spent some time working from home since the start of the pandemic, you probably already know about the Coronavirus working from home tax concessions. From April 6 2020 employees have been able to claim some tax relief if they have needed to work from home because of the pandemic. The tax relief is worth between £62 and £125 pa. This is based on 20% of £312 pa or 40% of £312, depending on whether the employee was a basic rate or higher rate taxpayer in the tax year. The allowance can be claimed in both tax years 2020-21 and 2021/22 if an employee was required to work from home at some point during each of the two tax years. By concession, whilst the amount is defined as £6 per week, it allows the full £312 pa to be claimed for the full tax even if the employee only spent a single day working from home. If an employee chooses voluntarily to work from home then they are not entitled to the concession allowance.

As the UK government are no longer recommending businesses to ask their staff to work from home, the scheme will be ending on 6 April 2022. After 5 April 2022, if an employee wishes to claim tax relief for employment-related expenses they will need to comply with the well-established strict traditional tax rules, and only if they have to work from home. Furthermore, claims can only be made for the actual time they have to work from home and the concession that even working from home for one day permits a whole year’s claim will stop.

HMRC says that to be able to claim tax relief, if applicable, an employee can only consider costs like gas and electricity, metered water business phone calls, including dial-up internet access etc.
HMRC say that you cannot claim for the whole bill, just the part that relates to your work i.e. the extra costs incurred by working from home and that you’ll need evidence, such as receipts, bills or contracts, to be able to claim tax relief.

Making Tax Digital for VAT affected companies
From 1st April 2022, all VAT-registered businesses will have to submit their financial accounts information via software that is compliant with the UK governments Making Tax Digital scheme. Since 2019 only businesses which exceeded the VAT threshold of £85,000 have needed to submit their tax details in this way. From next year, however, an additional 7,000 registered VAT businesses will be eligible.

To comply with the new HMRC Making Tax Digital rules, these businesses must have a cloud computer software package – one which is compliant with the government’s Application Programming Interface (API) system. It will no longer be possible for VAT-eligible businesses to submit via the HMRC website.

You are probably wondering whether the government is recommending a particular piece of software, they are not. But businesses that don’t have an accountant will be required to find their own third-party provider to provide the appropriate software and meet the new regulations. The majority of current desktop accounting software won’t be compatible with the government’s system and will likely need to be updated. The same applies to older accounting software packages. Cloud-based software packages should automatically update for HMRC’s Making Tax Digital system. At Designated Medical we are already helping our clients transition to Tax Digital. If you would like accountancy and compliance support, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our friendly team at Designated Medical.

The changes to IR35 and how it could affect you or your employees
Not necessarily a change for 2022, however, it is something we are still being asked about and something people are still getting their heads around. IR35 is tax legislation that ensures that contractors who are knowingly or not working as ‘disguised employees’ pay the correct tax.
You may have applied for contract jobs in the past where the company said they wanted to pay you under an ‘umbrella company,’ i.e., an agency. This is because it is more tax-efficient for them to do so. You become what is termed a ‘disguised employee’, and the company doesn’t have to pay your National Insurance contributions, nor do they have to offer sick pay or holiday leave. That’s because the agency pays it.

Equally, when you’re a contractor working as a limited company, you can pay corporation tax at 20 per cent on your profits, claim business costs against your tax bill and avoid making National Insurance Contributions (NIC) by paying yourself through dividends.

Gordon Brown introduced IR35 back in 2000 when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer. That’s because when working as it should, HMRC IR35 tax can protect both the contractor and company. Crucially for the government, it also means HMRC won’t lose out on tax. This year though, changes to the rule have come into place.

When you are determining whether or not IR35 applies to you, you will either be found to be ‘inside IR35’ or ‘outside IR35’. These phrases are crucial to defining and understanding your status, and considering whether or not the legislation will impact your future contractual work.

At Designated Medical, our objective is to allow you to focus on growing your business whilst we provide the business support services you need. We offer a full range of services including Medical PA, marketing, accountancy HR and Recruitment.

We provide you with the expert financial support you need for your business, flexibly and cost-effectively, so that you can ensure you deliver the greatest client experience. Our team of Designated Medical Accountants are fully qualified and licenced and will take responsibility for the professional management of your finances. They will be supported daily by our team of qualified bookkeepers who will handle the day-to-day transactions.

If you would like to know more about our Accountancy services, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our friendly finance team who will be more than happy to answer any enquiries you may have.

« Older Entries

Accountancy vs Bookkeeping

What skills should you look for when hiring a Marketing Manager?

Top social media trends for your 2022 marketing strategy

Managing small business cash flow and income in 2022

Post-pandemic Accountancy support and HMRC changes for 2022

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